Hearing- Nava Talitian
Unfortunately, employment termination is always relevant and this article is a guide with how to conduct a hearing with important tips and insights on how termination works according to Israeli Labor Law.
Unlike the United States where there is “Employment-at-will”, which means that an employer can fire an employee at any time for legal reason or for no reason at all, in Israel employers have the ability to terminate any of their employees at any if they have a legitimate reason, whether it be legal or rational, and they have conducted due process.
The most significant part of the termination process is the compulsory hearing. When an employer is considering terminating an employee they have to send the employee a hearing letter. In the letter is the reason or reasons in which the employer is considering firing them, tells them where and when their hearing will be held, and tells them that they are entitled to send a written response to the employer's claims instead of attending the hearing.
Once the employee receives notice of their hearing, the employer must grant them a sufficient amount of time to come up with an argument to contradict, disprove, and respond to the claims that were in the letter. During the hearing the employer must listen to all the claims of the employee, which is why it is called a hearing. Both employer and employee are entitled to have a lawyer present during the hearing so that they have legal support during the discussion. The employee also has a right to waive their right to hearing and accept getting terminated without first defending their side.
The employer is not allowed to issue a dismissal decision directly after the hearing. A sufficient amount of time has to pass to enable the employer to seriously consider all the things the employee stated during the hearing. This is to prove that the decision to fire the employee was not predetermined, which is in violation of the principles outlined in labor court law.
